Kenya Airways suspended from Nairobi stock exchange for 9 more months
Started in September 2019, the nationalization process of Kenya Airways is stalling. However, this is one of the sine qua non conditions for its return to the Nairobi stock exchange from where it was withdrawn in July of last year.
The suspension of the stock exchange listing of Kenya Airways (KQ) is extended for a further nine months, from April 5, 2021. As decided by the Nairobi securities exchange (NSE) on April 7.
"The company has not yet finalized its operational and corporate restructuring, with a view to its possible re-nationalization by the government, as provided for in the 2020 Bill on the management of national aviation, of June 18, 2020", justifies the Kenyan capital stock exchange. The bill she mentions provides for the renationalization of the Kenyan parastatal. The State, a 48.9% shareholder, will have to buy back the shares of a consortium of lenders grouped under the entity Kq Lenders Co 2017 (38.1%), Air France-KLM (7.12%) and those of other minority shareholders who share the rest. KQ's renationalization process began in September 2019, and is expected to last at least 21 months. A deadline that should not be met, as the Covid-19 pandemic slowed down the operation. In its new form, Kenya Airways - which recorded its eighth consecutive year of losses - will become one of three subsidiaries of a new holding company called Kenya Aviation Corporation (KAC), the other two being the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) and Aviation Investment Corporation (AIC). As a reminder, this suspension of the quotation of the carrier's shares is the third after those of July - October 2020, and from October 4, 2020 to April 4, 2021. In May 2020, the Secretary of the Treasury, Ukur Yattani Kanacho, said that a restructuring plan for KQ, supported by his administration and the Ministry of Transport, was ready, and was to be unveiled in the coming weeks. To date, said plan has still not been published.
